Friday, October 28, 2016

All my updates are like chapters in a book,
they all complement each other (and short!), and I would recommend to read all
for them (but in any order! :) ).

This update is about a vision.

A visionary is not the one who can see things
farther away than others, nowadays everyone can utilize binoculars or other
instruments to see things afar.

A visionary is the one who can see NOW, what
others will see much later. And again, nowadays there are tools which allow
everyone to be a visionary.

I am not a visionary. Even if I see something
still hidden for many, it is because I am standing on (stealing from Sir Isaac
Newton) “the shoulders of giants”.

The power of a random walk generated by a
social “Brownian motion” has led me to my current position. My diverse
experience allowed me to compose my views. Now I am using my professional
website www.TeachOlogy.xzy, my personal blog, and my fundraising
campaign https://www.gofundme.com/teachology as “binoculars” which
all people could use to see what I see.

In movie “Jobs” Ashton Kutcher’s character
Steve Jobs tells to Dermot Mulroney’s character Mike Markkula: “You are either
with me or against me!”.

I am not so drastic. I am looking for people
who are with me on the path for transforming education by transforming the
science of education. But I would never consider as enemies people who do not
share our view.

Recently I wrote a short letter to a high
ranking Boston University official. Despite my expectations, he responded with
a thoughtful letter, doubting the need for a science of education (and some
other views). Obviously, I cannot post his letter, but below is my response to
him, which also can be applied to any institution, organization, or an
individual.

Dear _______.

1. First I want to express my gratitude for
you finding time to read, to think and to respond. My informal statistics shows
that out of 20 people who received my email 16 would not react at all, 3 would
send back something trivial like “thank you”, or “good luck”. One writes
something thoughtful, like you did. I truly appreciate your time.

2. If we want to travel from one place on
Earth to another place on Earth as fast as we can we use an airplane. Trying to
do it faster and with more comfort, with more people on board, and less fuel
spent, we make plains better and better. However, no matter how good we are at
making airplanes, if we want to travel in space we have to completely change
the approach. First, we have to change our own psychology, we have to want to
travel in space, we have to believe it is possible, and then we have to find a
drastically new principle which could be used for building “space planes”
(a.k.a. rockets). And this is just a beginning of the new approach.

Using this analogy, I say that currently
everyone involved in education – in any/every role! – is trying to build better
airplanes. I want to build a rocket. The project will not address any current
issues in education any soon, and that is why almost no one feels any
attraction to it. Which brings me to my current actions.

3. Searching for people.

I am not really looking for any funding (yet),
I am not trying to convince anyone that I am right. I am looking for people
with whom my view resonates. I am not the only one who (a) states that a
science of education does not exists, and (b) it is possible to develop it (for
me – I am positive that it is possible at least for STEM subjects /we have an
example when an art has been gradually transferred into a science – the game of
chess/; I am not an expert in other areas, however, I would expect that there
are common principles which work for any subject). Hence, I have a long list of
people in various spheres (officials, charity officials, venture capitalist,
etc.) to whom I am trying to reach out. I am in the process of a consensus
building. It might take weeks, or months, or years, I do understand this.
However, I see only two scenaria.

I. When the project finds sufficient support
and will be ready to be launched into the next phase, all credits for that will
be just mine, Boston University will not have anything to do with it (like the
patent bureau where in 1905 Albert Einstein wrote his papers has nothing to do
with the special relativity theory – I am not compering myself with AE, I am
using this example as a clear analogy).

II. or it will be I and Boston University
together (even if initially we were not exactly on the same page).

3. I would not describe my emotion as
frustration, at least that was not intentional. I would rather say I feel some
disappointment. But my hope is that I am not alone who is disappointed with the
current state of education (for example, considering how the funds put into
it).

I want to thank you again and to express my
appreciation, and to invite you to physics department Pumpkin Drop which
happens today at 12!

The GoFundMe (https://www.gofundme.com/teachology) fundraising campaign is the only one I run, but I am working on other projects, too. This past weekend I participated in NES-AAPT meeting (https://aapt-nes.org/). There I was advocating for providing to all New England high school students at least an algebra based physics course. The motto of the initiative is: "Physics course to Every Student! Physics into Every School!" The reason is simple: physics is uniquely positioned as a bridge between math and nature. In order to help graduates to be prepared to contemporary job market they need to take at least an algebra based physics course.Follow the links for more information:http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x4ymbgkhttp://www.teachology.xyz/2020.htmlPlease, feel free to share with members of your professional and private networks, and contact me if you have any questions or want to participate. And of courser, please share the information about this GoFundMe campaign!

I
am sure that later in time I will have more coherent picture of what had
happened. In this update I just want to offer my brief, mostly chronological
than logical, illustration of the Summit.

As
you know, I am not really an entrepreneur – not yet. But I will. According to
Jon Nastor (the author of “Hack the Entrepreneur) “We aren’t born
entrepreneurs, we become them”.

When
I was a student, I saw myself writing papers on condensed matter physics,
publishing books and giving conference talks. Nowadays I am trying to transfer
to people the feeling of urgency and my view on the deepness of the issues in a
science of education (which does not exists yet: http://www.teachology.xyz/30uS.html).

I do have an
entrepreneurial gene, though. If I hadn’t, I would not quit my rising career
back in Russia 14 years ago, and would not move to a different country with only
$300.00 in my pocket, $5000.00 in debt, with no professional network, and no
ability to speak or understand English. And look at me know – teaching physics
to college students, and publishing papers on education!

After
overcoming the language barrier, reestablishing myself as an educator, it seems
only logical for me to finally move into the next new world – entrepreneurship.
In theory, I know a lot about it (I read now!), but knowing something how to
do, and doing it – makes a big difference (like in physics)! And trust me on
this: I know what to do and I am doing it.

During
presentations and panel discussions I kept my notes, and here I want to
summarize some of the thoughts. You may find some of the thoughts obvious or
naïve, but I find them uplifting, or informative, or resonating with my own
views.

If
you want to reach investors, be passionate, not logical, at least at the
beginning. Investors do want to give for a good cause, but they need to feel what
you feel about your project and the goal you want to achieve. Investors do fund
mission driven companies (i.e. ones which make money AND improve a society). Try to make investors to feel compassion to your
cause and to you (BTW: this part of a conversation is usually problematic for
me, because I am a very logical person, and do not have much of experience with
appealing to somebody’s feelings; in fact, I think appealing to feelings might
make more harm than good – a.k.a. Donald Trump).

An
entrepreneur needs a community of people who have similar views on the social
issues. A path often starts from a discussion of what is wrong with the world and what to do
about it. One needs a team of people who share the vision.

An entrepreneur needs to be ready to describe: What
is the social issue one wants to solve? What can be done to lessen the issue?
Who has to be involved, and what will they do? How to find people with the
right skills? What media or legislative support is needed? In the end, what
social value will be created or strengthen?

One
of the hardest things to do is to convince other people that the goal is
achievable, that the project is doable. If the current situation has been
around for a long time, if it became a part of the realty, a culture, a norm,
people do not believe it can be changed. What helps is igniting peoples’
imagination and picture the situation when the issue is resolved to contrast it
with the current situation.

No
matter how hard it can be to find people who can believe in you, “if you need
to walk the walk you have to start walking”. Do not wait until your plans will
be 100 % clear to you, start acting, “launch and iterate”. It takes time to
achieve the critical mass of supporters and collaborators. Corrections can be
done on the way.

One
panel had a very vibrant discussion about sexism in general and in business in
particular. It is very difficult to change the perception of women which had
been a part of a culture for centuries. I thought that in the business of
startups there is also a culture of ageism – if you are already older than 30
no venture capitalist will talk to you. Talking about changes in education we
run into a similar problem: i.e. for centuries education has been seen as arts
and crafts and anybody can do it. This perception still dominates in culture,
but it is wrong (everybody can cook, but not everyone can be a chef – same with
education, everybody can talk and tell what to do, but not everyone can be a
good teacher).

In
medicine collecting and storing reliable data is still a problem. But even
bigger problem is sharing the data with a patient. To make a transition from
collecting data to sharing data many different parties have to agree on common
protocols - i.e. common language to describe events and processes, common list
of measurable parameters, common set of values for the parameters, common procedures
for measuring parameters – this is EXACTLY what makes any science to be a
science, hence, to make a transition from collecting data to sharing data
people active in the field have to start developing a science of the field
(plus other issues have to resolved, like legal status of data, policies). A
very similar situation is true for education (science of education does not yet
exist).

For
every education-related project an investor should know: how does the
proposed solution affect teachers (the issues of a shortage of high quality
teachers; is the solution helps teachers to grow professionally or “replaces”
teachers with new tools; how is this project different from just giving to school
students missing resources like textbooks – when I was listening to judges who
would select the winner of the Forbes 1 million contest I thought that even
some investors may not know what exactly should they ask about an
education-related project).

For
every project an investor should know: how does the proposed solution
helps to increase social mobility of students (people of a certain group)?

While
listening to the discussions on the stage, I formulated some questions to which
I did not hear an answer.

What
is the difference between making an impact via investments, and making an
impact via charitable donations?

The
most of the impact projects aim at solving a specific social issue (e.g.
absences of access to learning computer coding, absence of access to teaching
materials like textbooks or supplemental texts, absence of access to high
quality teaching mathematics, absence of shoes, or food), and they are limited
by a local area (a district, a city). These projects solve social problems here
and now. How to present a project which aims at making a systemic change on a
large scale and in a relatively distant future (for example, mine)?

One
thing left me disappointed. Organizers had managed to build a glass wall
between the people on the stage and the audience. There were no open
microphones for questions, not even an option to pass a note. It was literally
staged like a theatrical play with a very expensive tickets (not as expensive as
the “Hamilton”, though). I saw and heard many people, and I would really like to meet some them (for example, see below my tweet to Ms. Linda Pizzuti Henry).

At
the very end of the event I had an interesting encounter. When I went back to
the Village (a.k.a. City Hall Plaza) I met a lady from Forbes, one of the
organizers. It happened in the Idea tent, where entrepreneurs were pitching
their ideas to the crowd. I asked the lady how could I get to the stage to
pitch my idea? When she realized that I was older than the title of the Summit,
she started looking for something in her bag, then she fished out her phone and
started talking (I didn’t hear the phone ringing, but it could have been in a
vibrate mode), then she turned around and started waving her hand (I did not
see anyone waving back), then she turned to a guy on her side and started
walking around him until she finally went away saying to my nothing, even not
looking at me at all. To this moment I do not know if she really got a call and
need to see someone, or she just faked it to avoid talking to me.

Sunday, October 16, 2016

My post today is very short.Today is the first day of Forbes magazine "30 under 30" summit in Boston.I got an invitation to it and I want to use it.I do not like surprises, even if they are good ones. I try to be prepared for everything what might happen. What if someone asks me hwy am I here? I need to be prepared. That is why I rehearsed my possible interview, just in case I would be giving one.

Saturday, October 15, 2016

I was trained as a theoretical physicist. What I started on
October 14th, 2016 is a social experiment.

It took me a long way to reformat my mind. When growing up I
was taught that only one type of social experiments can exist – a revolution;
and it has to involve a whole country, and no individual can conduct his/her
own social experiments.

Now we know that social experiments can happen on different
scales, and anyone can initiate one. We also know that, as any experiment, this
experiment can fail.

However, as I always say to a student telling me: “Mr. V, I
don’t know what to do to solve this problem” – “Try something, anything, there is always something you CAN do!”.

In school I learned about one of the biggest social experiment
of the 20th century – “The Grate October Revolution”. Now we call it
“A Bolshevik Coup of October of 1917”.

I remember an interesting fact. The Bolshevik movement
started from a printing a small paper, rather a flier, called “A Spark”. The
motto of the paper was “a Fire will come from a Spark.”

And – for better or worth - it did!

I hope that this campaign will become such a spark and together
we will make a difference!

Friday, October 14, 2016

Today is a big day for me! I finally got the guts to reach out directly to people. I started my GoFundMe campaign, you can find it at https://www.gofundme.com/teachology.
For everyone thinking about giving to any campaign two questions are importnat:
"Can I trust him?", and "Can he deliver what he promises?".
My website provides an extensive info on who I am: http://teachology.xyz/mathhealth/rezume.htm. The first chapter of my book "Becoming a STEM teacher" tells you my story (http://books.noisetrade.com/teachology).
In short, I had a very good career in Russia, just before I left I ran
an institution responsible for developing and implementation of
innovative policies in education for a city with 1 million people.
Regional officials reached to me for consultations when developing
5-year program for development of regional system of education. But when
I got a chance to move my family to the U.S. I took it (in part because
I wanted to save my son).
I had to learn how to speak, and now I teach.
I had to learn how to write, and now I publish papers and books.
I know
what I want, and I can do it!
The full description of the campaign is long (I am a teacher). The shortest version is this:
My current goal is to ignite public and to attract attention to the issue of a science of education.
In 1939 a letter has been delivered to President Franklin Delano
Roosevelt. That letter helped to change the history, because it became
one of several important seeds from which later on the “Manhattan
Project” grew up and the first atomic bomb was created.
The letter was signed by Albert Einstein. But the main authors of the
letter were Hungarian physicists Leo Szilard, Eugene Wigner, and Edward
Teller. Why didn’t they leave their signatures on the letter, and why
for delivering the letter did they employ a help of another person who
personally knew F.D.R. ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Einstein%E2%80%93Szil%C3%A1rd_letter)?
Because previously those physicists wrote a similar letter to the State Department, but nothing happened!
If Twitter, Facebook, and crowdfunding websites existed in 1939, maybe
the Hungarian physicists could use the power of masses instead of the
power of names to attract attention of people in power?
Everyone who finds at least some logic in the project, please be my Einstein and share this post.

Monday, October 10, 2016

Today I have met a man, we talked, I said that I am a teacher, and he told me a story.His son could not get how to divide numbers.Turns out, today math teachers teach division differently.The man showed his son the old fashion long division and the son got it, and started using it, and was getting correct results.However, math teacher wrote a note to the man saying that he cannot teach his son methods different from approved by a school.This is a spectacular example of NOT being a teacher.Down the road, it does not matter how a student does division as long as it is done correctly. And if a student can learn division differently from taught by a teacher, it only means the teacher is not good. Period.

Sunday, October 9, 2016

Hi everyone,yesterday I found an interesting sitehttp://books.noisetrade.com/(better say, the site found me, someone sent me a link) I was able to post there my latest book "Becoming a STEM teacher: a crash course for people entering the profession".Now, everyone can download for free a pdf file,or a mobi file for reading the book on Kindle, or epub file for an iphone or an ipad.Here is a link.http://books.noisetrade.com/teachologyBut what I like the most is that everyone who likes the book can leave for me a small gift :)Hope you will like the book!